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Best of Green: Culture and Celebrity

"Best" / Worst Event: The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

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"Best" isn't the right word for a massive environmental disaster that will have repercussions for decades on the Gulf of Mexico, its sea life, and the people who live and work on the water. When BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in April, tragically killing 11 of the workers on board and spilling as much as 25,000 barrels of oil a day into the ocean, there wasn't much good news to come out of it.

But, sometimes big change requires a big event -- and shifting our dependence on oil to a clean energy-based system definitely qualifies as a big change. While it hasn't single-handedly changed the national energy policy (yet), if the oil spill gives the alternative energy movement the momentum it needs to start guiding us away from fossil fuels, then some good could be salvaged from a bad situation.